Curse Return: Swordsmith Start

The old man's passing seems to have changed something, and this very sumptuous and delicious dinner seems to be one of those changes. He used to never be able to enjoy such a meal, but today he realized that his sister's cooking skills are quite good.

The main dishes on the table were pickled fish and rice, along with a few side dishes. They tasted very good, with a hint of the flavors from that region, which was enough to surprise him.

Oh, so the old man has been enjoying this delicious food all along, while I'm eating out every day. It's outrageous!

"How was your day?"

He glanced at his sister with slight surprise, but was also delighted by the change, and responded softly.

"No problem. I've read everything the old man at the workshop told me to do. I plan to go back to work tomorrow to warm up. The school arrangements are all set, and I can start school next Monday."

"Okay, you can tell me anything directly. I have some experience in dealing with things in society."

"clear."

The Yue people didn't stand on ceremony. Whether or not they needed it was another matter; they needed to put their sister at ease.

As for her social experience, it refers to her work internship experience, which makes her more mature than her peers who only have part-time work experience.

Sure enough, the girl's expression softened considerably when she heard him agree immediately.

After finishing his meal and helping his sister clean up the mess, Yue Ren went to his room, turned on his computer, and searched online. He found that he could hardly find any information related to the world of sorcery, so it seemed that the control over this area was not too bad.

Without wasting any more energy, he opened the books that had been gathering dust in his schoolbag for over a month and sat down to start reviewing. Since he had decided to go to school, he should do everything properly. Besides, he had nothing else to do right now. He did want to practice his skills, but his sister was still studying in the room downstairs. What kind of person would he be doing big things upstairs?

And so, the night passed without further incident.

At 07:15 a.m., before the sunlight had even fallen on the earth, the people of Yue were already up.

His older sister, who had gotten up a little earlier to prepare, was quite surprised. She had never seen him get up so early before.

After saying "go get ready early," the Vietnamese man spent ten minutes heating up some milk and preparing a few cheese sandwiches.

After quickly filling his stomach, he left home before his sister.

"I think I should teach my sister a few cooking tricks, or maybe buy her some Chinese cookbooks? These milk sandwiches for breakfast every day are just so unhealthy..."

Unless there are special circumstances, you can't see any trace of cursed spirits on the streets. The traffic and pedestrians are coming and going, accompanied by the occasional cherry blossoms brushing against your cheeks, which is quite pleasant.

In particular, there were many beautiful sights of pleated skirts and stockings.

At 16, he should be at the most emotionally turbulent and sincere age. Although he had memories of more than 20 years from his previous life, it would be a lie to say that he didn't yearn for love, given that he had no romantic experience in both lives combined.

If this were a slice-of-life anime, perhaps he would be troubled right now about how to find a girlfriend he likes through his talent. But unfortunately, the most basic need for survival helps his rationality to firmly lock that flutter in his heart.

My inner voice kept telling me that I shouldn't think about these things until I had enough strength to protect myself, because it wouldn't end well.

That being said, it didn't say that he couldn't appreciate it normally, so he took a few more glances.

Arriving at the workshop without hesitation, they immediately began to work.

The Yue people planned to forge a normal weapon first to warm up their skills, and then see how things went before continuing with the next task.

He had already figured out all the tools he needed on the way, so everything went smoothly. After preparing the work environment, he began the first step of forging: cutting the charcoal.

Charcoal is generally used for forging katanas. In order to ensure even heating, charcoal blocks of similar size, about half the size of a palm, are usually prepared before forging. The process of changing charcoal of different sizes through the knife is called charcoal cutting.

This was also the first thing Yue Ren did when learning forging from the old man; it can be considered the first step in the training of all swordsmiths.

So this was something he could do with ease, and now that he was enhanced, he finished a task that would normally take half an hour in less than ten minutes, and his movements were pleasing to the eye.

The second step then begins: steelmaking—

The main material is "Tamagang," which sounds nice, but it is essentially iron refined in a crude way. It is also called sponge iron and is not very good as a forging material. It has only been preserved because of the country's tradition.

Furthermore, due to its fixed production location and limited output, only a few katanas can be forged each year, making them highly collectible. This is why the old man still made him learn this skill – to make money.

The old man has always pursued practical weapons, so in this workshop you can see many things that are unconventional in the eyes of traditional craftsmanship, such as coal, large forging furnaces, patterned steel, and so on.

The Yue people are practicing now, so they've chosen to start with the basics.

He placed the uneven "Jade Steel" iron block into the burning firebed, and after it was completely red-hot, he took it out and picked up the familiar hammer.

One hammer blow, two hammer blows... Without realizing it, he used the method taught by Grandpa Muramasa. With rhythmic hammering, the originally uneven iron block quickly deformed on the gold bed.

The process went exceptionally smoothly. What would normally require several tempering steps was completed in just one pass by Yue Ren, forging the iron block to a workable state. He didn't even feel tired. Only then did he realize that not only had his basic attributes improved, but certain skills had also become second nature to him.

Suppressing my inner joy, I continued working.

With a sizzling sound, the iron block, which had been rapidly cooled in the water, was taken out again, revealing its true appearance. To be honest, it wasn't in good condition; it looked like scrap iron full of impurities. In reality, it wasn't much different. It was only four or five millimeters thick, and a person could easily break it. However, this saved the next step: "small cut".

The fragments of tamahagane are sorted, with some iron blocks having a high carbon content and being harder, and others having a low carbon content and being softer. The former will be used as cladding iron, and the latter will become core iron.

This is easy for the Yue people who now possess the techniques; they don't even need to use the techniques, as the eyesight honed by the "testing objects" is sufficient.

Forging then continued.

The iron blocks were stacked together, wrapped, and placed on a fire bed for a second heating. When the time was right, the Yue people swung their iron hammers again.

Bang, bang, bang...

With a regular rhythm, seriousness, and focus, Yue Ren himself didn't even realize that he was gradually entering a certain state.

Forging, folding, forging, folding... Sweat soaked his body, but his eyes were bright and his movements were pleasing to the eye. There was no sense of strain in traditional forging. It was like a machine hammer, rhythmic and powerful. Every strike was done according to his will, and impurities were constantly removed in the process.

In one hour, the Yue people completed the processing of the materials.

The next step is forging. The high-carbon sheet metal is forged into a U-shape, and the more flexible core metal is embedded in it in a long strip, followed by reheating.

This is one of the characteristics of Japanese swords. To increase sharpness, toughness, and hardness, even a single blade is made of different materials.

The use of a hard outer layer of iron to encase a flexible inner core allows the blade to be both hard and flexible, a "racial wisdom" passed down from ancient times in times of scarcity of raw materials.

After heating, the forging continues—

After multiple refining and processing steps, this is the most suitable time to make the blade. The current forging process is shaping, ensuring that the core iron is wrapped by the outer iron, while gradually stretching the iron block into the blade shape, and further removing impurities.

Ding ding ding—

At this moment, the Yue people could see the firelight of forging reflected in their eyes.

Finally, after countless hammer blows, and with the precise control of the "test object," the blade of a katana emerged. No special measuring tools were needed, and the blade did not bend in the slightest.

But it's not over yet. Now, localized heating begins to create the cutting tip and blade. At this moment, the wave pattern formed by countless hammer blows can already be faintly seen on the blade.

Then it's fully heated, and some secret trace element seasonings are added. After incorporating them, it undergoes a final "water quenching".

blah blah-

As steam rises, a real weapon takes shape at this moment.

Finally, sanding, polishing, tsuba (handguard), and attaching the handguard...

Finally, as the sun was high in the sky, a real samurai katana appeared in his hand.

After a few flourishes and swings, the feel is just right.

Using the technique, Yue Ren saw the memories that had just been forged...

"Tachi" (normal)

Material: "Jadeite"...

Time: 1 days

Process: Treadle steelmaking method

Description: A masterpiece crafted by a skilled knife maker, the material's properties are perfectly utilized, making it a rare and excellent piece. Unfortunately, the poor material lowers its potential; it could have been much better.

Simultaneously open the properties panel —

锻造lv4（26/50）试刀物（4/15）

Both related skills have improved. Seeing this, Yue Ren smiled slightly, thinking, "Just as I thought."

Stretching, Yue Ren carefully put away his gleaming new sword, washed it, and decided to temporarily leave the workshop to have a meal in the surrounding area.

Previously, his fastest record was one day, while the old man's fastest record was half a day, and that was with the help of the air hammer. Now, the time required by Yue Ren has been shortened to half a day, and it is still of the same high quality. The value of this system and the old man Muramasa is self-evident.

At a nearby fast food restaurant, Yue Ren realized that his hands were trembling slightly as he served the food, and that he had finally felt the real sense of accomplishment he had made that morning.

With what he did this morning, he'll basically be able to survive in this country. If he finds an opportunity to contact one of the people his grandfather left behind, he can basically live a life where he can work once and then do nothing for half a year.

So even though the meal cost 500 yen, he didn't feel bad about it.

"Ah, if only this were the everyday world, a life of leisure where you don't have to worry about money, I kind of want to experience that..."

After finishing my meal, I went outside, murmured a sigh to myself as I faced the sun, and then headed towards the bookstore.

He strolled among the bookshelves with leisurely steps, observing and relieving his fatigue. Eventually, he found a section dedicated to Taoist classics, with both Japanese translations and original Chinese versions. Yue Ren, who had no difficulty reading, picked up a book he could read and looked at it. Half an hour later, he came to the front desk with an unopened book.

Finally, he left the bookstore after being greeted by a pretty young lady.

In fact, he had already discovered a way to quickly calm himself down, which was blacksmithing. After doing that set of movements in the morning, he felt like his mind was empty, and afterwards he had no worldly desires. All negative emotions were brought out and crushed and eliminated along with the impurities.

So it doesn't seem to matter whether I buy these books now or not. But then I thought, since I'm looking for a new way out, I definitely need to have more knowledge. Since I've realized that, I might as well buy them and take a look. Maybe I'll be able to use them in the future.

With the help of "reading" and techniques, he gained a general understanding of those classic texts and eventually acquired a copy of "Zhuangzi," along with a copy of "The Heart-Cleansing Mantra" and its annotations.

At the same time, what made him a little nervous was that this thing actually cost 3000 yen. If he hadn't found a way to make money today, he would have really been heartbroken.

Using his unique magical cooling method, Yue Ren returned to the workshop under the scorching sun. Not in a hurry to continue, he took advantage of his break time to browse through the "property" placed on the bookshelf in the small room.

These are all books about forging; some were passed down in the family, some were collected, and some were summaries made by the old man himself.

The old man was a very "ambitious" person, or rather, a knife maker; in a sense, he was the "perfect" successor.

According to his own notes, the Kawasaki family's sword-making heritage was actually unknown in his father's generation. It was only after the old man, who was interested in it and had the talent, explored it continuously and spent a lot of money to become a master swordsman's apprentice that it gradually developed into what it is today, with its own independent workshop. The family's wealth was also accumulated by the old man over his lifetime.

Even in his later years, the old man became restless, and his pursuit shifted from simply creating "craft collectibles" to achieving "the ultimate".

By normal standards, such behavior is obviously highly problematic. After all, in a "modern" world dominated by firearms, the fact that the essential meaning of traditional swords has been eliminated is undeniable.

But now it seems not so surprising that the old man had such thoughts after coming into contact with the "world of sorcery".

In a sense, he had already succeeded in forging that katana. That cursed weapon, which could be called a "demon sword," would, barring any unforeseen circumstances, be remembered by the world along with his name.

It's easy to imagine how proud the old man was with such achievements. No one could find fault with his desire to pass on everything he had worked so hard for. However, he suffered repeated setbacks, with one of his bloodlines disappointing him one after another.

"It's better to destroy than to ruin!"

With this in mind, the old man developed completely different attitudes toward himself and his sister... Compared to his blood relatives, Yue Ren, as his heir, was more in line with his wishes. And when Yue Ren truly demonstrated his ability to master everything he possessed, he resolutely wrote the final chapter of his life.